Zbigniew Krawczyk

Sport in the Era of Structural Changes: the Example of Eastern Europe

Radical social changes in sport in Eastern Europe are a result of a break-up of the social and economic system, defined as real socialism. However, there are also autonomical origins for such changes, particularly economic incapacity, conceptional and ideological inadequacy, organizational and institutional disfunctionality, as well as inefficiency of the sports managing elite. An attempt of an analysis and interpretation of these four problem areas was therefore made in this article.

Sport as a Factor of Acculturation

friendship and competition between individuals or groups of individuals, for priority in values highly appreciated for centuries such as: beauty, art and physical skill. These and other chief features of sport place it, all the same, among the patterns, norms and models permeating the hitherto lasting attainments of homo sapiens. Therefore, they ought to be described and analyzed as a specific feature or concretization of a wider system of elements, characteristic of the given culture inside which a process of broadly understood specialization and autorealization of a human individual comes into being. It is a known fact that the full objectivization of the world of culture that submits to unilateral analysis according to the human methodological directives by Durkheim and Czarnowski to examine social appearances &dquo;as things&dquo; is a useful theoretical operation that can be realized only in abstraction. Actually &dquo;everything to which we can ascribe cultural value, has it only because of its reflection in people’s own mentality, understanding it this or that way&dquo;.=’ Thus, such a point of view is substantiated which bids to measure the value of sport with its social scope as well as contents and intensity of influence on the individualities of those who come under such influence.

Florian Znaniecki's Humanist Approach to Physical Culture

mastering the technique of motor behaviour, including the field of sport. This process took place either in a &dquo;natural&dquo; way i.e. by means of multiplying the various skills handed down to succeeding generations on the basis of direct transfer of experience, or such behaviour was acquired in specially set up institutions, such as the ancient Greek gymnasiums or knights’ schools. In the second case the activity that was to shape certain habits was in the hands of people, especially appointed and prepared for this purpose. Maybe the creation of the profession of physical education which gradually took place is. deserved among the traditional professions, requiring specialized training, turned into one of the essential reasons for the development of natural sciences in the field of physical education in the 19th and 20th centuries, which was most strikingly revealed in Ling’s system and in the ideas spread by his adherents and propagators. This process was undoubtedly facilitated by the intensified development of natural sciences in the 19th century, which was especially appreciated and stressed by the adherents of positivism.

Sport as symbol.

This paper is an attempt to analyse sport in semiological categories, i.e. of sign and symbol. The author accepts the significative layer of sport is nearest to the nature of a myth. Contemporary sport expresses the industrial societys desire to compete, to reach for perfection, individual fame and riches. It also satisfies the hope for rapid horizontal and vertical mobility, for women to surmount biological and culture barriers and for the abolition of ethnical and racial inequality. It further expresses the longing for universal ethical principles and for escape from the spiritless conditions of a profane world. In the authors view, the basic forms of symbolizing sporting behaviors have been expressed by: the ideology of sport, utopia of sport, ethics of sport, sporting art, science of sports and a ritual of a sacral nature.

Physical Culture from the Perspective of Values - A General and Selective Approach to Physical Culture

In the introductory section of this article the author draws up a typology of definitions of physical culture prevalent in social sciences, above all in sociology. This is followed by an attempt to explain this category from an axiological point of view. Three basic spheres are differentiated: values of existence, social values and symbolic values. However, this approach to physical culture only refers to its objective dimension, whereas an interpretation from the point of view of mdividual attitudes, preferences and behavioral patterns is expressed in the three categories of recognized, perceived and implemented values. The final section of the article is devoted to reflections on the sociological and anthropological approach to physical culture.

Physical Culture — Past and Present

This article deals with the problem of the influence exerted by tradition on the aspect of physical culture being created at present and the significance of the con temporary value system for the reconstruction of the history of mans motor activity. Depending on the methodological approach to history researchers of physical culture in each new epoch embark on a controversy regarding the shape of tradition in the sphere that interest them. This situation was caused by the fact that problems of our times cannot be solved without a fundamental correction of the retrospective picture of social reality. In addition to this, history always functions as a collection of arguments in favour or against proposals of social change. Finally each new social force tries to find confirmation in history for its own programme of action. That is why there are such diversified attitudes in regard to historical experience in the field of physical culture.

The Taking Shape of the Profession of a Physical Education Instructor

a profession as a sociological category in order to understand the contemporary transformations, taking place in the social structure. B. Barber wrote in connection with this pr oblem that the position a person occupies in his profession is the best single indicator in the stratification system of American society.’ Another sociologist maintained that the profession can serve as a summar y indicator of other class features, above all the income bracket and educational level.°&dquo;Many phenomena indicate&dquo;, reasoned W. Wesolowski in the same spirit, &dquo;that such features of social position as income, qualifications, power, have retained their stratifying role and are criteria of social prestige. A profession or post is to a considerable extent an indicator of such features. One may even say that in our conditions the profession is a better indicator of the social position than is the case in a capitalist system. In many respects it is

Sociology of Sport in Poland

Theoretical reflections on physical education, competitive sport and recreation in Poland began in the late 19th century, developing as an integral part of the social science of sport, dealing with complex problems of the genesis, structure and functions of physical culture in the face of national and structural transformation. But the social elements of sport did not achieve full autonomy until the 1960s, when sociological and historical studies as well as theoretical analysis were initiated. Empirical research developed on rural sport and its social transformation, sport in urbanized areas, and sociological problems of top-class sport. In the 1970s the sociology of sport in Poland entered a new, much more advanced stage of development and dealt with social engineering, professionalism, the sociology of education through and for sport, the sociology of organization, and the role of sport in culture. The present needs and objective possibilities of Polish sociology of sport can be satisfied if it develops quantitatively as well as qualitatively, especially in the search for new paradigms and bold individual and collective research ventures and integration with related social sciences.

Polish Publications (Abstracts)

Press articles published in selected periodicals during the years the Olympic Games were held in Montreal and Moscow as well as those directly preceding the Games (1975-1976, 1979-1980) served as research material for this book. Three groups of problems were analysed: people, ideas, and institutions connected with sport. The findings indicate that press statements predominantly deal with competitive sport (about three-fourth of the articles). The picture of physical culture as presented by the press is marked by a lack of cohesiveness of the judgements passed, especially regarding controversial matters and the model of .

Physical Culture in Social Consciousness

A Polish (N = 1000) - Hungarian (N = 259) comparative investigation using empirical data analyzes the popular concepts and estimation of physical culture. In the population examined, consisting of secondary school students and their parents, the popular and theoretical definitions are rather different. Four main concepts of physical culture were differentiated. For the theoretical framework of this research, the Marxist concept of F. Takacs was used, as well as those of Polish experts. There are national and generational differences in attitude regarding certain aspects of physical culture, with the Hungarians and older people tending to greater skepticism, and Poles and younger people to more positive viewpoints. However, in both the Polish and Hungarian samples, the majority considers physical education and sport to be a means of developing physical abilities, but not of forming personality traits, revealing a rather contradictory attitude toward it.